Love and Only Love
by Mr. Pasternak 65
Summary: A different version of events following the 'Academy' episode. What would've happened if Rose got away from Brad and was able to spend some time alone with Jake?


LOVE AND ONLY LOVE

Love and Only Love

By Mr. Pasternak 65

Warning: Very Mushy and weird at times (human kissing a dragon)

Note: I don't AD: JL

The night was young and the moon was bright. In New York City, even the millions of lights from the thousands of buildings could not hide the moon's silver glow. At Millard Filmore Middle School the lights were still glowing. Tonight was the school's Fall Ball. Nearly half of the student body from the most popular kid in school to the nerdiest was there.

On that night, young Jake Long was hoping for a dance with his one love, Rose Turner. Unfortunately she was swept from his grasp by the jock, Brad Morton. Jake sadly walked back to his table where Spud had set himself after being dissed by two cheerleaders.

Spud noticed Jake heave a long sigh. "Tough break for you Jake?" he asked.

"Yeah," was Jake's reply. "I can't believe it!" Jake suddenly yelled. "I mean, I've been waiting three months for some alone time with my dream girl and that show off Brad Morton just had to come and ruin it all." "It's okay dude" said Spud sympathetically. "I got shut down by two girls ten minutes ago. So, I now how it feels."

Jake smiled; at least he had a good friend by his side.

"Thanks Spud" he said.

At that moment, Trixie and Kyle Wilkins danced their way to the table again. Trixie once again began bragging that she was dancing with one of the hottest boys in school. "Can you believe what is happening to me yo? Me and Ky-"

"Okay, we get it!" Jake and Spud yelled. They'd had enough of Trixie's bragging. It was all that they had been hearing about.

Trixie merely scoffed, "Fine. Let's go Kyle."

"After you baby." Said Kyle as he swept her off her feet.

"Ooh man! I just can't get enough of this!" shouted Trixie as they left Jake and Spud to resume moping.

Spud gently pat Jake on the shoulder, "It's okay buddy, I'm here for you." Just then, a beautiful brunette sat opposite of them. She smiled at them and said cheerfully, "Hi. I'm Brianna. What's yours?"

"Well, I'm Jake. Jake Long. And this is-"Spud was frozen stiff; his eyes staring at Brianna and his tongue dangling out from his mouth. Jake nudged Spud on the shoulder and he regained his senses. "Spud!" Jake whispered. "Your name! Tell her your name!"

"Oh yeah. Um, my name's Arthur. But my friends call me Spud." Said Spud.

"Spud," said Brianna. "That's an odd nickname." "Oh, yeah well-" Jake had to endure Spud talking to Brianna for twenty minutes, which annoyed him since Spud was supposed to help him out, not make him feel worse.

"So you're name's Brianna?" asked Spud. "That's my mother's name!" "Shut up! It's really your mothers name too?" asked Brianna. "Yep."

Jake whispered, "'Brianna' isn't your mothers name."

"I know," was Spud's reply.

Jake groaned and rested his head in his hands as Spud and Brianna continued talking.

Meanwhile, Rose and Brad were slow dancing among the other kids. Though she wanted to be with Jake, Rose had been dragged away by Brad so quickly that she couldn't speak out.

Brad looked down at Rose, grinning slyly. Normally, girls found Brad's smile to be irresistible, but Rose, the hottest girl in school, found it annoying.

"So Rosealicious" said Brad using his pet name for her, "Where have you been all these miserable months?" Rose lied, "Oh well, I was put in another school but my uncle wasn't happy with the district so he sent me back here." "A wise decision I might say. So, did you see any good-looking guys while you were there?"

"Well I-"

Brad put a finger to her lips, his grin widening. "No need to say. 'Cause no guy could possibly as good-looking, strong, _and_ sensitive as the Bradster."

Rose grimaced but remarked, "Ha ha ha. There you go again Brad." Her thoughts were contradictory however.

_Yep. He's still the same show-off he's always been._

Twenty minutes later, Rose was about ready to scream. Brad's pompous and egoistic demeanor was wearing away Rose's nerves.

"You know, ever since I became quarterback on the football team, I have to lift weights at least three times a week," said Brad. He then flexed his enormous muscles in front of Rose, obviously to impress her. "Check out these biceps." He said grinning.

"They look great Brad," she said unaffected.

Brad noticed this and tried to impress her with his 'sensitive' side. "You now I've also been watching the new soap opera on TV." He softened and pretended to sniffle, "I cried like a baby when the young girl said to her mother she was pregnant." He managed to make a fake tear come out. "See, I know you like this kind of stuff."

Brad didn't notice Rose was looking back at Jake, who was now alone at the table.

"And then-"

"Um, Brad?" Rose interrupted, "I actually feel like going home now?"

"What? But we've only danced for like an hour. The night's still young."

"Yeah, but I had a long day moving into my new apartment so, I'm just going to try to go home and settle in. So, later."

"Oh, wait. How about I take you home?" asked Brad.

"No thank you."

Rose walked away amid the crowds. "Okay, well see you around!" Brad called out. "Call me! The Bradster's always available!"

"Okay!" Rose called back.

_Like that'll ever happen._ She thought to herself.

Jake was looking down at the floor when he heard the sound of footsteps approach him. He looked up to see-

"Rose! You're back, and-"his smile disappeared. "Where's the Bradster?" he said sarcastically.

"I dumped him."

"You did?!"

"Yep." Jake's smile came back.

"I've got an idea," Rose continued. "How about, just this once, we spend some time together."

"Just you and me?"

"Sure, why? You have any plans?"

Of course Jake didn't have any plans. His two best friends were out on dates and he didn't want to waste another night listening to his grandfather's lectures or his father's man-to-man talks. "Nope, no plans."

"Good," Rose smiled. "Let's get outta here."

"Right behind you baby."

Jake got up from his seat and followed Rose to the door. Rose stopped and pointed back.

"Look Jake."

Jake noticed Brad standing amid about, six admiring girls. He was flexing his muscles and making comments about himself while the other girls swooned over him.

"Ha, I guess Brad won't be lonely after all, huh Jake?"

"Yeah Rose."

The two walked out the door, into the recess grounds and took a minute to admire the scenery. The full moon seemed to shine right over them and cast a silvery veil over them.

"Well, what are we waiting for," Jake announced. "Are we just going to stare at the moon all night? Or are we going to go somewhere?" "Fine," Rose said. "I'll let you decide where we'll go tonight." "As you wish," he said while bowing respectively to her. Rose giggled at his gesture.

He walked down the steps and glanced back at her. "Dragon up!" Jake's body was enveloped in a blue flame, so bright Rose had to cover her eyes. When she opened her eyes, standing before her was a scrawny but tall, red dragon.

Jake noticed that Rose was staring at him. "What? Are we going to look at my pretty face, or are we going to fly?"

"Fly?" asked Rose hesitantly.

"Yeah. Oh come on, don't tell me you're afraid."

"Well, I-"

"Don't worry," said Jake lowering down to all-fours. "I'm not gonna let anything happen to you."

Rose agreed and climbed onto Jake's back. As a precaution, she wrapped her arms around her neck.

"Hold on," Jake said as he flared his wings and rose into the sky. For the first few minutes, Rose rested against Jake's neck with her eyes closed, too nervous to look down.

Finally, Jake felt that Rose was feeling tense and tried to comfort her. "You know," he said, "If you look open your eyes, you'll won't feel scared anymore."

"You sure?"

"You don't trust me do you? I can't believe after all we went through at the Academy, you still don't trust me."

"Oh, all right. But if I get a panic attack, it's on your hands."

Jake laughed and agreed. Rose opened her eyes and gasped. The night was crisp but clear. There were hundreds of thousands of stars above them, the nearby moon shone eerily nearby, and the city below was in a sea of bright lights. Rose was in awe.

"It's so beautiful."

Jake, on the other hand grinned slyly at her, not in the way Brad smiled at her though. "Ha! Ha! I told you so!" he mocked. Rose smiled return and said playfully, "Oh, stop it."

The two flew for another fifteen minutes until Jake spotted the Empire State Building. He landed at the very top and carefully set Rose down. Then, returning to his human form, he sat beside her on the ledge.

"So," said Rose. "You come here often?"

"Well, usually when I'm done training with Gramps, I'd take a small flight here to relax."

"I see. How have things been going at school? Is Rotwood still there?"

Jake groaned, "Yes, he's still there. He's still obsessed with finding magical creatures. I'm tellin' you one of these days, that man's gonna go straight to a psychiatrist or somethin'."

"How's Brad? From what I saw, he hasn't changed the least since I left."

"He's worse," Jake admitted. "Whenever he walks by with all his 'girlfriends' he'd be like 'I know how you feel Jake; you wish you were more like the Bradster instead of a dork,' or something like that."

"Well, don't listen to him. You're not a dork and you know it."

"Thanks Rose," said Jake admiringly, "I needed to hear that."

They went on for over an hour talking about Rose's experience at the Academy and Jake's dragon duties. Then Rose asked innocently, "How did you find out I was the Huntsgirl?" Jake frowned, "During the ski trip when I recognized your birthmark."

"Oh," said Rose. "Then, what did you do after I left?"

"I couldn't get my mind over you. I tried everything I could to forget: entering a Home Ec. Class, followed Gramps' meditating methods, and I even tried becoming a monk. Now matter what I could do, I still thought of you, dreamt of you, and wondered if you were or not."

Rose was looking at him with sorrow, tears in her eyes. She now understood Jake's sufferings.

"Jake…." She clasped his hand and looked into his eyes. Jake blushed, accepting her gesture. Still feeling very bashful Jake said "I forgot, there's one more place I want to show you."

"All right," said Rose.

Jake backed away and re-shifted into his dragon form. But before Jake could lower himself, Rose had jumped practically into him, and nestled against his chest. Jake, figuring she wanted to fly in his arms, embraced her and lifted up into the sky.

After ten minutes, they landed in Sheep's Meadow at the edge of Central Park. By that time, they were the only living beings in the park. All the people had left and the residential magical creatures had gone to sleep. It brought a sense of intimacy to the park.

Jake released Rose and let her take a brief stroll around while Jake shifted to his human shape.

"Why did you bring me here?"

"I sometimes flew here to relax when I couldn't sleep at night. Of course, that was after you left."

"You picked a perfect spot to think about me."

Jake chuckled then noticed Rose yawning. She looked at her watch, it was 11:00.

"It's really late," she said.

"Do you want me to fly you home?" asked Jake.

Rose instead stretched and lay down on the cool grass. "Actually, I was thinking; this place is so perfect I'll rest here for a while."

"What about the Huntsman?"

"Oh, he knows I was going to be out for the night. And when will I ever get a chance to _really_ spend time with you."

"You're right," said Jake as he too settled himself down on the grass.

They rested for a few minutes, separated by about a few feet. Unfortunately, the night they chose to be in the park was bitterly cold, forty-six degrees to be exact. Even when Jake shifted into his dragon form and huddled himself up, he still couldn't keep warm. Rose also regretted not bringing heavier clothing as she was huddled up as well, shivering like crazy.

To try to keep her mind off the cold, Rose got up and set herself beside the trembling dragon.

"Hey Jake," she said.

Jake lifted his muzzle up to look at her.

"I never got to see what I did to your left ear." Said Rose.

"Okay, well, you can look if you like," said Jake as he turned his head sideways. Rose pushed away the hair behind his left ear to reveal a long scratch in the area where she hit him with her staff.

"Hmm, you have a little scratch behind your ear Jake."

"So, what are you gonna do about it?" Jake asked.

"I know just the thing" she replied mischievously. She reached down and kissed the scratch. For a moment, Jake couldn't speak. He could only stare at her with his beady, black eyes.

"Well?" asked Rose.

Jake outstretched his clawed arms and snatched her. She didn't even have time to gasp before he set her against him, lowered his muzzle to her face and kissed her affectionately. While normally, Rose would've thought a dragon kissing her was a little odd, tonight she didn't care the least. She felt as if she was growing to love the side of him she had tried to destroy all this time.

After about thirty seconds, Jake pulled back and rested his muzzle on top of her forehead. Jake at that moment was overwhelmingly happy. What started as a simple crush had developed into a passionate love for Rose. In his arms, he held everything that he cherished, worshipped, and craved for so long.

He knew the time had come and he wasn't the least bit afraid.

"I loved it Rose, and I love you. I've loved you from the moment I saw you." Said Jake

Rose gazed at him with tears in her eyes. She held his muzzle in her hands and returned the kiss. When she pulled back, she looked into his eyes. "I love you too Jake. You may be a dragon and you may be a hideous beast to the Huntsman, but I still love you."

She snuggled into Jake as he held her tightly.

"It's okay baby," said Jake soothingly. "The Am-Drag's right here for you."

"You always have." Rose never needed a strong, tough man like Brad. What she needed was a man who could look after her, help her, and comfort her when she needed it. Jake, the American Dragon was what she needed.

Rose lay content in Jake's arms with Jake humming some of his favorite songs, lulling her to sleep at around 11:30. Jake followed shortly thereafter. They slept for six hours until Jake woke up as the sun beat down on his face. Gently, he nudged Rose awake.

Rose woke up with a yawn, "Good morning Jake."

"Good morning, sorry to disturb you but it's time to get you home."

"Aww," she whined, burying her head into his chest. "Just five more minutes."

"Sorry Rose, if I miss training Gramps will burn me for sure."

Rose crawled out of Jake's hold on her and got on her feet while Jake stretched himself and shifted to his human form.

How about we walk to your apartment?" he asked.

"I wouldn't mind at all," was the reply.

They walked out of the park and strolled for about half an hour before they arrived at Rose's 34th street cobblestone apartment. As she walked up the steps, she looked back at Jake and smiled.

"Thanks again, for everything." She said finally."

"Anytime Rose. Anytime."

She walked inside and closed the door. Jake walked for another half hour, smiling about how everything had been going so well for him now. Soon he arrived at the Canal Street Electronics Shop. Only to be greeted by-

"JAKE! Ai-yah! Where on earth have you been?!" shouted Lao Shi.

"Your mother was worried sick about you," said Fu Dog in tow.

"Sorry G. Spud invited me and Trixie to his house to sleep over," Jake lied. "But his power was down so I couldn't call you."

"Well next time, call me or your mother before you go over to your friends homes."

"Now let's you upstairs kid, we got training to do."

"Sure thing Fu."

So, Jake walked up the stairs ready to begin the day as if nothing had happened. But inside, Jake was bursting with happiness. Not only did he get to spend time with Rose, but she actually admitted she liked him. Now, Jake could begin with a fresh new heart and greater hopes that with Rose back, the future could be brighter than ever.

The End

Note: I've just come back from a little depression spell as a writer and I've had a hard time trying to write my stories. So, please try to be supportive and send positive reviews if you can.

Thank You.


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